"Ay, out of the alms-basket, where charity appears in likeness of a piece of stinking fish."
Even this poor allowance to the distressed prisoners passed through several ordeals before it came to them; and the best and most wholesome portions were filched from the alms-basket, and sold by the jailers at a low price to people out of the prison. In the same play it is related of a miser, that—
"He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these four-and-twenty years, but always cozened the poor prisoners, for he brought his victuals out of the alms-basket."
In the ordinances of Charles II. (Ord. and Reg. Soc. Ant. 367.), it is commanded—
"That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away my meat or wine from the table, or out of the chamber, upon any pretence whatsoever; and that the gentlemen-ushers take particular care herein, that all the meate that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates be put into a basket for the poore, and not undecently eaten by any servant in the roome; and if any person shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited immediately to remaine in the chamber, or to come there again, until further order."
The alms-basket was also called a maund, and those who partook of its contents maunders.
W. Chaffers.
Old Bond Street.